ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President John Davidson announced today that Blues forward Keith Tkachuk underwent successful surgery on his left pinky finger and will be sidelined 10 days. The surgery was performed today by Dr. Charles Goldfarb of Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Janssen, who appeared to lead with his elbow, said: “I was just coming back and [Bradley] had the puck. He cycled it back, and he was looking back like he felt the puck was still on his skates. I finish my hits. I thought it was a good opportunity. His head was down and I was just trying to get the boys into it. I hope no suspension, but we’ll see what happens. If it happens, it happens and that’s the way it is.”

A lot of folks wanted to blame the Blues’ erratic play on coach Andy Murray, and eventually team management came to the side of Murray’s critics by firing him on Jan. 2.

But what has changed since Davis Payne took over?

The answer: not much, really.

This isn’t a knock on Payne. I like him. He’s tried to emphasize the right things. He’s done about as well as could be expected. But as I have been saying all along, and the point needs to be reinforced, so here I go again: this is about the Blues’ players.

No GM is going to send a coach off into his good night with the reputation of not being able to work with kids. That’s why you hear things like “the team was not progressing” even though many of the players currently on the St. Louis and Columbus rosters were simply going through the learning experience that comes with having success early and then falling back as teams play against them with greater intensity.

Still, you have to wonder if Murray or Hitchcock will get another chance in the now youth-conscious NHL. You also have to wonder if once the Blue Jackets move past Noel (or the 54-yer old shows them that he can relate to their kids), Howson won’t be placing a call to Filatov.

Mother Russia looks nice right now, but NHL money, a spot on Nash’s wing and no one harping about defensive play can be a powerful lure…especially for a GM who has lost a potential franchise player.

The Blues were victimized last night. A 2-2 game, midway through the third period at Vancouver. Paul Kariya was sent off for two minutes for “slashing” Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin. There were only two problems with the call: (A) in an attempt to con the officials with an acting job, Sedin dramatically shook his left hand. Except that Kariya had actually “slashed” Sedin’s right hand. Still, it was very impressive the way Sedin thrashed that left hand around. He was in so much pain that he skated away from the puck — just abandoned the thing — during live action. Sedin was so good in conveying his near-death experience.

I wonder if the ref will have a pre-game chat with Henrik when the meet up again? On the other hand, I doubt it…

Without tipping his hand toward any potential trades, Davidson on Friday shot down a Canadian-based trade rumor that had Blues forward David Backes headed to the Vancouver Canucks.

“David Backes isn’t going anywhere,” Davidson said. “There’s nothing to it. We all do our scouting, but the facts are the facts: David Backes isn’t going anywhere. People just love to speculate.”

A report in the Toronto Globe and Mail suggested that Vancouver—which signed Backes to a three-year, $7.5 million offer sheet in July of 2008 that was quickly matched by the Blues—was interested in a potential deal.

The report suggested the Blues were interested in Canucks goaltending prospect Cory Schneider, who is playing for Vancouver’s top farm team, the Manitoba Moose.